Global Supply Chain Crisis 2021: Megathread - A cozy thread for watching the supply chain fall apart just in time for the holidays

Should the title be re-worded to expand the scope of the thread?

  • The US Trucking Crisis of 2021 works fine

    Votes: 25 9.4%
  • The US Logistics Crisis of 2021

    Votes: 30 11.2%
  • The US Transportation Crisis of 2021

    Votes: 7 2.6%
  • The US Supply Chain Crisis of 2021

    Votes: 35 13.1%
  • Global Supply Chain Crisis 2021

    Votes: 206 77.2%

  • Total voters
    267
  • Poll closed .
On top of that we have endemic labor shortages worldwide as people will not work for the same money they made pre-pandemic and the boomers who run the corporations can't accept that they will have to vastly increase offered wages to fill positions. Mandates and environmental regs aren't helping but ultimately the shortages are a result of inflation combined with supply chain fragility.

I've been talking to someone about this and the Boomer problem is two fold, the ones running it are miffed people dont want to work for crap wages and conditions and there are a lot of younger boomers and early flower children who are now retireing who are taking a lot of knowledge with them that doesnt exist outside of the company. There are a lot of industries starting to seriously cry out for staff experienced staff at that but mangement's addicted to cheap labour and doesnt understand that if they want a line worker with 10 years of experiance you have to pay more for them (I'm talking about line workers in manufacturing who are semi-skilled or skilled), and this is going for other surprising industries I've seen adverts for accountants that want serious work for little more than starting sallary.

It's shocking really, it used to be two jobs that got paid the most The ones that people didn't want to do and the really highly experienced ones and that remuneration strategy is starting to bite them in the arse.
 

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Companies like yours were an integral part of what's going on today. The day will come where you'll reap the whirlwind, hippy cunt.

The CEO of one of the most important media platforms in the world is giving the world financial advice? Okay? How did his company perform in this absolute bull market, especially for tech?

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Black is the Twitter stock. Blue the performance of the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF Shares. Which is pretty much the average performance of the worldwide stock market.

Opinion disregarded.
 
A local grocery store is having open interviews each week.

If we focus on labor shortage, we could predict which industries will suffer first based on their labor bottlenecks. It makes sense that something like trucking would become affected before retail stores, etc.

Has anyone heard about issues with trash pickup? If trash pickup fails, cities are going to be in big trouble.
JOKER WORLD HERE WE COME BAYBEE!
*autistically dances down a stairway*
 
They can't give up even a tiny sliver of power. They're so power hungry, that they're willing to destroy everything if it means that they can amass even a tiny morsel more of power, and they're so selfish that they want to do it within their lifetimes.
The amount of hubris it takes to wish for the Great Reset plan is boggling. They want to destroy the most stable, prosperous and peaceful system in the history of mankind for the chance to rebuild it in a way that benefits them even more. The sheer arrogance to believe that they would survive the chaos, much less be in a position to rebuild society in their vision is borderline insanity. The entitlement they feel to justify the suffering of billions for their own sake is inhuman. For the people that aren't billionaires but somehow support this, there is no question, they are lost in complete lunacy.

They are mentally incapable of understanding the consequences of their actions and that is terrifying.
 
The amount of hubris it takes to wish for the Great Reset plan is boggling. They want to destroy the most stable, prosperous and peaceful system in the history of mankind for the chance to rebuild it in a way that benefits them even more. The sheer arrogance to believe that they would survive the chaos, much less be in a position to rebuild society in their vision is borderline insanity. The entitlement they feel to justify the suffering of billions for their own sake is inhuman. For the people that aren't billionaires but somehow support this, there is no question, they are lost in complete lunacy.

They are mentally incapable of understanding the consequences of their actions and that is terrifying.
I wouldn't quite put it that way. More that they've accepted that the current monetary and economic system is unsustainable on a mathematical basis. To continue to prop it up will lead to an utter disaster that will sweep them from power and likely dead or exiled.

So more like a controlled demolition to their minds. Every hundred years or so this shit happens.
 
I've been talking to someone about this and the Boomer problem is two fold, the ones running it are miffed people dont want to work for crap wages and conditions and there are a lot of younger boomers and early flower children who are now retireing who are taking a lot of knowledge with them that doesnt exist outside of the company. There are a lot of industries starting to seriously cry out for staff experienced staff at that but mangement's addicted to cheap labour and doesnt understand that if they want a line worker with 10 years of experiance you have to pay more for them (I'm talking about line workers in manufacturing who are semi-skilled or skilled), and this is going for other surprising industries I've seen adverts for accountants that want serious work for little more than starting sallary.

It's shocking really, it used to be two jobs that got paid the most The ones that people didn't want to do and the really highly experienced ones and that remuneration strategy is starting to bite them in the arse.
I'de like to add that many of them seem to hate the idea of doing ANY training whatsoever. This is something I think is happening around all industries (not just manufacturing). For example I was talking to a buddy who works at a place that had someone with 4-5 years experience leave. Now its not a job that needs a particular skill-set/education so you think the choices would be either find someone that has some/similar experience that they help out until they get settled OR get someone green and mold them into a position with a lot of guidance and hand-holding. But no we would rather leave the position open for months until they can find a 1:1 replacement that will work at starting wages like some-kind of worker robot that we can flip on and will do shit at 100% efficiency day one.

Another problem (at least from what I've experience) that alot of boomer management still have the attitude of "If you don't like it then quit/we can replace you easily". It fucking astounds me how people can still act like that when they haven't fixed the original problem of staffing shortage, and are currently dumping all the work on the staff they do have. You think companies would be desperate to keep the employees that are still around and at very least treat them nicer (if not pay them a bit more). But I guess not.
 
I'de like to add that many of them seem to hate the idea of doing ANY training whatsoever. This is something I think is happening around all industries (not just manufacturing). For example I was talking to a buddy who works at a place that had someone with 4-5 years experience leave. Now its not a job that needs a particular skill-set/education so you think the choices would be either find someone that has some/similar experience that they help out until they get settled OR get someone green and mold them into a position with a lot of guidance and hand-holding. But no we would rather leave the position open for months until they can find a 1:1 replacement that will work at starting wages like some-kind of worker robot that we can flip on and will do shit at 100% efficiency day one.

Another problem (at least from what I've experience) that alot of boomer management still have the attitude of "If you don't like it then quit/we can replace you easily". It fucking astounds me how people can still act like that when they haven't fixed the original problem of staffing shortage, and are currently dumping all the work on the staff they do have. You think companies would be desperate to keep the employees that are still around and at very least treat them nicer (if not pay them a bit more). But I guess not.
Its all the knock-on effects of individually rational choices leading to a completely irrational system

You want someone who can do the job as cheap as possible, because otherwise you will struggle to compete on cost with your competitors. Your options are to underpay for someone with the skills required (More accurately, underpay for the skills or the workload, paying someone real well to do two peoples worth of work is the same underpay overall), or hire someone who's unskilled who would work cheaper, and train them up to the appropriate level, without adjusting their salary according. However, training is the objectively worse option in every regard - Until the person is trained, you will be missing this critical option, and whenever the person is trained up, they'll demand a raise, or be poached by a competitor. Training is far more likely to leave you paying someone who can't do the job you want them to do, until they take the skills you taught them and leave. Training anything more than ancillary skills to the role functionally never makes sense.

The initial answer to this would be corporate loyalty - But that is actively discouraged. Even if you are loyal in the short term to those who trained you, in the long term the goal is still "Pay someone as little as possible to do the job we want", so you will never see appropriate compensation for the work. This causes stuff like the tech industry phenomena of "Change job every two years otherwise you're missing out on a 50% salary increase compared to your peers". People jump ship to the next most desperate employer who needs the skill yesterday and will actually pay for it, then stagnate salary wise in that role until they jump ship again.

The next most rational answer would be to have an internal career path available instead - Sure, you won't see much raise in the short term, but stick around and we promote internally, and this gives you a long term career outlook and stability, with actual salary increases with the new roles. Problem is, recruiting internally is generally a terrible idea. If you take your actually good people, and promote them into new positions, you end up with an inexperienced person at the new position, and emptied out a role that had someone who was excellent at it. This is a net awful proposition for the organization. The alternative is to promote people who aren't the best at a role but might be better at a higher role, but this leads to organizational resentment, and feeds the peter principle, as you promote the less capable to higher and higher positions. Its almost universally preferable to hire externally for a role, to get someone experienced in a position without also hollowing out another slot in your organization.

But when you glue all this together, you end up with organizations who can't pay people what they're theoretically worth unless they're in a tight situation, can't train people to new skillsets, and can't promote internally to encourage sticking around, so you end up with dysfunctional organizations trading staff faster than the patrons of an LGBT nightclub can trade STD's, with the system being propped up for the staff involved by whatever organization is desperate enough in the totem pole to pay a better rate at the moment - and the cycle become self sustaining as the staff bail from the higher organizations to the better payrates, destabilizing them. The whole things a mess glued together by inertia and apathy.

Then lockdowns came round and blew out the kneecaps of this shambling system of musical chairs, and its all fallen down, and there's no good place to start picking up the pieces.
 
I’m noticing that the media doesn’t actually know how to respond to this (as of now). There’s none of those ridiculous ‘Here’s why hyperinflation is actually good’ or ‘Biden’s policies aren’t actually causing hyperinflation (Hint: it’s because of conservatives)’ editorials.
I don't know, they were flirting with it at least while it was still called just inflation. I would not put it past them.
 
I’m noticing that the media doesn’t actually know how to respond to this (as of now). There’s none of those ridiculous ‘Here’s why hyperinflation is actually good’ or ‘Biden’s policies aren’t actually causing hyperinflation (Hint: it’s because of conservatives)’ editorials.
I don't know, they were flirting with it at least while it was still called just inflation. I would not put it past them.
They're basically in denial of the situation. Look at Jen Psaki's snide "let them eat cake" dismissal of it last week.
 
They're basically in denial of the situation. Look at Jen Psaki's snide "let them eat cake" dismissal of it last week.
This is why I feel like it will end spiraling out of control once the upstream effects of China's power issues come downstream to US markets. I can't help but feel that Trump would have snapped up that coal shortage opportunity in China, giving West Virginia and most of Appalachia some sort of relief, something that would have been very likely since he was already engaging in a trade war to reduce the trade deficit. Instead we have climate change zealots who are clapping that coal isn't working for China, completely oblivious to how its going to rend the US economy. Its probably hard to believe but we may be seeing only the beginning of this Global Supply Crisis, there is a very real chance that we will be dealing with more extreme shortages by the end of the year and into 2022-2023.
 
This is why I feel like it will end spiraling out of control once the upstream effects of China's power issues come downstream to US markets. I can't help but feel that Trump would have snapped up that coal shortage opportunity in China, giving West Virginia and most of Appalachia some sort of relief, something that would have been very likely since he was already engaging in a trade war to reduce the trade deficit. Instead we have climate change zealots who are clapping that coal isn't working for China, completely oblivious to how its going to rend the US economy. Its probably hard to believe but we may be seeing only the beginning of this Global Supply Crisis, there is a very real chance that we will be dealing with more extreme shortages by the end of the year and into 2022-2023.
Can't reset something until you hit the stop button first.
 
This is why I feel like it will end spiraling out of control once the upstream effects of China's power issues come downstream to US markets. I can't help but feel that Trump would have snapped up that coal shortage opportunity in China, giving West Virginia and most of Appalachia some sort of relief, something that would have been very likely since he was already engaging in a trade war to reduce the trade deficit. Instead we have climate change zealots who are clapping that coal isn't working for China, completely oblivious to how its going to rend the US economy. Its probably hard to believe but we may be seeing only the beginning of this Global Supply Crisis, there is a very real chance that we will be dealing with more extreme shortages by the end of the year and into 2022-2023.

I fear you are more right than you think. Use your insight to your own benefit and that of your family. Stock up on essentials. Coordinate with your community. Things like that.
 
In the American Midwest, I went out and did a lil' shopping today.
I went to Goodwill, Aldi, and Walmart.
Goodwill was like it always is. Lots of stuff, very few things *I* needed.
Aldi was okay. They were low on a few things, but they had the stuff I went for, including lean ground beef and chicken breast, at reasonable prices.
Walmart was interesting.
Walmart had huge empty areas, like the toilet paper shelves were barren except for maybe 2 brands. Laundry soap aisle had lots of product but not the brands or sizes I was used to seeing. Pet food seemed okay, but kitty litter choices were limited. Most of the grocery section looked like it does if there's a big storm coming and everyone says they're going out for bread and milk but really they get frozen pizza, chips and soda. Speaking of soda, diet cola was a rare sight, and then only in 12 packs. They had regular colas and diet Mt Dew but ick.
The juice aisle was nearly empty but the alcohol seemed reasonably well stocked. I didn't need any so I didn't look too closely. I did get an extra can of coffee since I hate running out of that.

Now, lets talk about how the people acted. In Goodwill and Aldi, they were normal (ish.) In Walmart, about every 5th person was normal. Everyone else looked like they were up to something. I honestly have never gotten that many separate "watch out for that one" mental alarms in one shop before. Maybe the empty shelves were giving folks the creeps, but they looked weirdly aggressive, like they were planning to rob the place or maybe some unsuspecting individual.

It's still October. What will the future hold?
 
In the American Midwest, I went out and did a lil' shopping today.
I went to Goodwill, Aldi, and Walmart.
Goodwill was like it always is. Lots of stuff, very few things *I* needed.
Aldi was okay. They were low on a few things, but they had the stuff I went for, including lean ground beef and chicken breast, at reasonable prices.
Walmart was interesting.
Walmart had huge empty areas, like the toilet paper shelves were barren except for maybe 2 brands. Laundry soap aisle had lots of product but not the brands or sizes I was used to seeing. Pet food seemed okay, but kitty litter choices were limited. Most of the grocery section looked like it does if there's a big storm coming and everyone says they're going out for bread and milk but really they get frozen pizza, chips and soda. Speaking of soda, diet cola was a rare sight, and then only in 12 packs. They had regular colas and diet Mt Dew but ick.
The juice aisle was nearly empty but the alcohol seemed reasonably well stocked. I didn't need any so I didn't look too closely. I did get an extra can of coffee since I hate running out of that.

Now, lets talk about how the people acted. In Goodwill and Aldi, they were normal (ish.) In Walmart, about every 5th person was normal. Everyone else looked like they were up to something. I honestly have never gotten that many separate "watch out for that one" mental alarms in one shop before. Maybe the empty shelves were giving folks the creeps, but they looked weirdly aggressive, like they were planning to rob the place or maybe some unsuspecting individual.

It's still October. What will the future hold?
If things are going anything like the Store I work in there is a bunch of shit in the back room. I have seen more shit in our backrooms than I have seen ever. I took damaged stuff back into the Dairy Cooler and it looked worse than it did when I was working in there every night by myself for six months. 4 Pallets..10 Carts none of it opened or worked at all. I heard one of the Storckers complaining the other day that they had no room to unload the truck that night because there was so many pallets of unworked freight.
 
If things are going anything like the Store I work in there is a bunch of shit in the back room. I have seen more shit in our backrooms than I have seen ever. I took damaged stuff back into the Dairy Cooler and it looked worse than it did when I was working in there every night by myself for six months. 4 Pallets..10 Carts none of it opened or worked at all. I heard one of the Storckers complaining the other day that they had no room to unload the truck that night because there was so many pallets of unworked freight.
This is a common boomer mismanagement, instead of canceling a truck and working old freight they just dig themselves deeper and deeper by making their stockrooms impassable and all of the shelves are bare, the automated ordering systems just keep ordering more and more of the same shit because its noting that stuff hasn't sold for a week or two so it assumes the numbers in store are wrong for some reason. Its a simple thing to just call the DC and cancel the truck, but usually this kind of situation plagues weak management that are terrified of their superior District / Regional Manager because they cannot muster up the courage to tell their boss "Hey we had a heavy amount of call-outs this week and we're not where we need to be on old freight so I'm canceling the truck on xyz-day to catch up and maybe the truck afterwards as well."
 
This is a common boomer mismanagement, instead of canceling a truck and working old freight they just dig themselves deeper and deeper by making their stockrooms impassable and all of the shelves are bare, the automated ordering systems just keep ordering more and more of the same shit because its noting that stuff hasn't sold for a week or two so it assumes the numbers in store are wrong for some reason. Its a simple thing to just call the DC and cancel the truck, but usually this kind of situation plagues weak management that are terrified of their superior District / Regional Manager because they cannot muster up the courage to tell their boss "Hey we had a heavy amount of call-outs this week and we're not where we need to be on old freight so I'm canceling the truck on xyz-day to catch up and maybe the truck afterwards as well."
The Management in my company doesn't control Trucks. All the Inventory is handled by Corporate and the Automated Point of Sales. So some days we just get..two trucks at once..without being told.
 
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